1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a protector for holding a corrugated tube.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H09-294320 discloses a protector for protecting corrugated tubes. The protector is mounted on a branched part of a bundle of wires and is substantially T-shaped with a main line portion covering a main-line of the wires and a branch covering a branch line of the wires. The protector has first and second half members connected by a hinge and is mounted while holding the corrugated tubes covering the wires between the half members. The corrugated tubes are held to project from ends of the protector while covering the wires. Thus, the wires are not damaged by contact with the end edges of the protector.
The half members first are held in an open state for mounting the protector. The first half member then is placed on the main-line corrugated tube that is mounted on the main-line of the wires. At this time, the first half member is positioned so that opposite ends of the main-line corrugated tube project from the opposite end edges of the main line portion. The branch-line corrugated tube then is mounted on the branch line of the wires drawn out from the main-line corrugated tube and the branch of the first half member is placed on this branch-line corrugated tube. The second half member is put on the first half member while the branch-line corrugated tube and the main-line corrugated tube are pressed by the hand to prevent displacement from the first half member and, consequently, the two half members are closed.
The need to press the main-line corrugated tube and the branch-line corrugated tube by hand to prevent displacements takes time and labor and therefore is inefficient.
Furthermore, the ribs need to be fit reliably into the grooves to mount the protector on the corrugated tubes. Thus, if corrugate tubes differ in diameter, protectors sized in conformity with the different diameters must be prepared, leading to increased cost.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H08-145241 discloses another protector for fixing a bundle of wires to an object such as a body panel. This protector has first and second half members to be engaged with corrugated tubes covering the bundle of wires while holding them therebetween. An engaging leg projects from the outer surface of the first half member and is shaped for insertion into the mount hole of the body panel. The engaging leg includes two resilient pieces that deform during insertion into the mount hole. The resilient pieces restore resiliently to engage the edge of the mount hole to be retained in the mount hole upon completing the inserting operation.
The above-described protector is mounted on the body panel in a specified orientation. Accordingly, a wire laying direction is determined upon mounting the protector on the body panel, and many types of protectors have to be prepared to lay bundles of wires in specified directions, thereby presenting a problem of low versatility.
The invention was developed in view of the above situation and an object thereof is to provide a protector for improving mounting efficiency.